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Monday, November 23, 2015

Pro-death penalty movement gaining traction

The emergence of Californians for Death Penalty
Savings and Reform is the most visible sign of a growing nationwide response to
the success of efforts to abolish the death penalty, reported the Marshall
Project. For decades, executions were carried out steadily, and supporters,
always a majority, were a silent one. But since 2007, seven states have
repealed the death penalty and in many others the pace of executions has slowed
as prison agencies struggle
to find lethal injection drugs and prosecutors decline
to pursue death sentences. A group of defense attorneys want to
bring a constitutional challenge to the Supreme Court, and even Republican
presidential candidate Jeb Bush has voiced ambivalence.

Like many of these movements, the California
initiative grew organically in response to efforts to abolish the death
penalty. The victims’ advocates and prosecutors now leading the charge began
working together in 2012 when opponents of the death penalty brought
Proposition 34 — a straightforward abolition proposal — to voters. Those
opponents included men
and women with tough-on-crime credibility, from Jeanne Woodford, the former
warden of San Quentin prison, to Ron Briggs and Don Heller, both political
figures who championed an expansion of capital punishment in the 1970s.

About Matt

An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.